From July 19-24, 2010, I spent most of my time cooking at Camp Seeley in Crestline, California, where we held our stake (the San Bernardino Stake) girls camp and Pioneer Day Celebration. I would be in the kitchen anywhere between 4:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. and did not go home until 8:00 p.m or later. It was non-stop work, but I enjoyed it very much. The friends that helped me in the kitchen made it one of the happiest weeks of the year for me. This picture is of me with my friend Laura Collis. She is the one that gave me the Cafe Rio Salad recipe on page 26 of my cookbook. She also helped me grocery shop for all this food. We made breakfast, lunch and dinner for 130 people. Some of the favorite dishes of the week were the homemade cinnamon rolls, roast beef and mashed potato dinner (not instant mashed either)
Next to me on the left is Jim Robbins. On the right is Pam Strebble, with Laura in the forefront. Pam is Brittany Cribbs Strebble (Judie Quinn Cribbs daughter) mother in law. Did you follow that connection?
Andrew may be sitting down in this picture, but he wore a hairnet too and worked side by side in the kitchen with me. He is an extremely hard worker. Just outside the kitchen was this beautiful patio with a stream running next to it. The kitchen staff would take their breaks there. There weren't many breaks, but when we got one, we appreciated the cool breeze that blew our way.
As if cooking for girls camp wasn't enough, we had decided to have the stake Pioneer Day at the same camp we held girls camp, so on Friday and Saturday we cooked for more like 300 people. We had Walt Terry and his gang cooking in 22 dutch ovens. We had sloppy joes, dutch oven potatoes, my baked beans and apple crisp with green salad. No small task. I so appreciated my friends who helped.
Greg and Valerie Fields helped a lot. That is Mandie to the left in the white sweater.President and Sister Poulsen talking to the Fisher's who came to help Walt with the Dutch ovens. Pres. Poulsen wrote me a thank you note and said this was the best 24th of July celebration our stake had ever had. In addition to the dinner, there was swimming, hiking, provident living demonstrations, a family dance, a campfire program, beebee gun shooting, dodgeball, basketball, a service project, and much socializing.
Outside the dinning hall, Andrew, Rachel and Christian were serving. Rachel had probably 1 hour sleep, but was still there to help. Inside the dining hall. Elder Thompson, Elder Teichert and a 2 week missionary. Elder
Thompson's brother was on his mission with Meagan in Florida. When she saw him and saw his name, she made the connection because he looks so much like like his brother. Small world.
For breakfast we had pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream, and two kinds of syrup. Kandi, Bryant and and Janae came at 5:00 a.m. to help me cook. Kandi had been all week at girls camp and Janae had helped me the night before and worked all week. What friends.